Chinese checkers is a star formed by 1 polygon and 6 tangent triangles, which form the seat of each player. Each player chooses the color he will move with and tries to move all his pawns to the exact opposite triangle with overtaking moves. The moves he is allowed are either to jump the immediately preceding pawn and place himself in a free hole, or to continue even further if there is another available pawn that can pass over it. Thus, with relatively quick movements, he manages to find himself in the opposite triangle. But if there is no forward pawn to help the move, he will only advance one hole and wait until it is his turn to move again. The winner of the game is the one who succeeds in placing all his pawns in the opposite triangle first. When 6 people play, the game becomes more difficult, since the pawns in the center of the polygon are more, as a result the freedom of movement is limited! Despite its name, it did not originate from China or any other Asian country. The game was invented in Germany in 1892 under the name ‘Stern-Halma’ as a variant of the older American game ‘Halma’. “Stern” (star in German) refers to the star shape of the board (as opposed to the square cardboard used in “Halma”). The name “Chinese checkers” originated in the United States as a marketing scheme by Bill and Jack Pressman in 1928. The Pressman Company game was originally called “Hop Ching Checkers”. In Japan the game is known as the “Diamond Game” (ダイヤモンドゲーム), while it was brought to China by the Japanese where it is known as Tiaoqi (Chinese: 跳棋, “jumping chess”).
